You know a product is bad when I have to start this post with “I just dont know why this product still exists.” That’s Prestige in a nutshell, and its sad that we have gotten to this point after how good the product was back in 2012. To see what Panini had the opportunity to do with 2015’s edition, and then what actually came out of it is a bigger question mark than the gigantic text they use on most of their cards.

Here are the big hits up so far:

2015 Panini Prestige Jameis Winston Auto Purple Parallel

2015 Panini Prestige Marcus Mariota Auto Purple Parallel

2015 Panini Prestige Giovani Bernard Vet Auto Purple Parallel

2015 Panini Prestige Devante Parker First Impressions Auto

For a while now, Prestige has been the first sets where true NFL team affiliation was available for depiction in the product. With the rookie premiere now almost 2 months ago, the time is available to create and print cards with NFL uniforms and OTA shots for most rookies. For the 40 attendees of the photo shoot, full NFL branding is available. Instead, Panini opted to use a combination of NCAA and NFL branding for the set, some of which is understandable.

What completely baffles me, is the lack of on card content that is showcased in Prestige. With the available usage of NCAA uniforms, Panini had EVERY opportunity to get on card autos done for the big rookies who they were granted access to for an entire weekend in March. Topps used this oportunity to get tens of thousands of cards hard signed by the class, where Panini obviously thought better of that opportunity. Any card that depicts Marcus Mariota, Jameis Winston, Todd Gurley and others in their college uniform, could have been hard signed. I know this is the case because that is what Topps chose to do.

To provide context, Topps Inception will be on shelves August 12th. In this product, which will cost about the same as Prestige’s sticker fest, there will be a combination of on card autographs and sticker relic autos. Among the on card autographs will be booklet cards, logo cards, inscription cards, and all sorts of other amazing looking content. There will be no college branding or players without logos on their cards. In fact, many of the first 5-10 Topps sets will be similar, some even featuring non-rookie on card content. So far, nothing of the sort from Panini. Its also worth mentioning that Inception will be redemption free.

There is one on card set in Prestige, and boy is it worth your time to check out. Panini thought it was a great fucking idea, to get the rookies to don their Panini shirts, hold the helmet of the team they are playing for, and sign the cards the next day. Besides the fact that this makes for some hilarious looking shit, the design is even more puzzling. Everything about it screams Panini, with giant text everywhere, and nameplates obscurring the bottom fourth of the layout. What a fucking joke.

Topps is making a huge push to put out some of the best sets in their last year of a deal with the NFLPA. Panini has had their exclusive in place for one year, and we have yet to hear of an exclusive with NFL properties, who owns the brands and logos for all the teams. Even if the exclusive with NFLP was in place, Topps is making a case for why they are so much more worthy of a license than Panini, and its not even close. Right now, based on what we are seeing, Topps is running the race like Usain Bolt, and Panini hasnt even gotten to the track to get suited up.

This is a wholly scary situation that puts a lot of things into perspective for 2016 when the NFLPA exclusive takes effect. You may wonder why I bring this up at every chance I get, only speaking to the importance of the matter. No company should be able to operate with lower quality without recourse. That’s exactly what is going to happen, unless Topps can find a way to keep their NFLP license and continue to produce football cards.